Like so many people out there, I was duped by the hype surrounding the launch of the Blackberry Storm, a smart phone designed by RIM in conjunction with Vodafone tagged as their very own Iphone killer. Vodafone plugged the phone as the product that would turn its fortunes around, the phone that would bite back at O2, the only O2 carrier in the UK and the phone to beat all other phones.

What bugs me about the Storm, more than its slowness to respond and inaccurate touch screen is the fact the phone has been completely forgotten by both its manufacturer RIM and its UK carrier Vodafone. A day doesn’t pass without an Iphone advert on TV plugging the latest apps, whilst we still wait for the frequently delayed Blackberry App World to be launched. At present the Storm isn’t in the same game let alone the same ball park as the Iphone and G1 when it comes to the number and quality of applications available to owners.

I cant remember the last time I saw a Storm advert on TV. The ones that were aired weren’t really up to much and whilst it tried to position the phone as being sophisticated with a grown up feel the Android and Iphone are positioned as being far cooler devices.

Ignoring the lack of marketing and the big gap that will be plugged by an official app store, the phone itself has been forgotten. The phone has many bugs and issues that if fixed would seriously ease the stress levels of owners. Turning the phone and then waiting a few seconds for the accelerometer to kick in to rotate the screen isn’t ideal especially when Iphone adverts show off how well theirs works. The last official firmware update came early December which fixed a few issues but left many unresolved. Three and a half months on and Im still waiting for a firmware update. I don’t believe its taking this long to produce the next upgrade. There is no news on when the next release is coming nor what it will include.

I feel let down. I purchased the phone thinking that this could be the phone that took the mantle as being the best out there. Apple are benefitting from being a household brand with one phone to sell while not many people know of RIM and Vodafone has many phones to spread its marketing budget across. In theory the Storm has all the promise of being able to compete with other phone out there but until RIM and Vodafone throw some weight behind the device its always going to remain a poor relation.